Just Another Day

How was your Thanksgiving? I hope it was filled with family, friends, and turkey. Our’s was!

We got a late start out of Unalakleet Friday the 17th… random FAA checks delayed our flight by two hours, and we finally arrived at the Holts around midnight. It was a cold, cold night, and wonderful to be greeted by the warmth of their new home. The beautiful wood stove flickered through the night… I took the prime side of the bed so I could watch the flames as I drifted off to dreamland.

Our time with Tiff, Rick, Keegan, and Rohnan was so much fun and went so quickly! Bill and Rick stayed busy with construction stuff, while Tiff and I tackled the important tasks… catching up over coffee and crafting. 🙂 We played lots of pinnochle and had plenty of laughs… many at the expense of my horrible hair doos growing up!

I even got to go out mushing a bit… the first time for me! There wasn’t much snow on the ground, so the solution is to have the dogs pull the 4-wheeler. It was a beautiful ride and so neat to see the way the dogs know what to do and how much work it must take for a musher to get a team together. It was a very unique, special experience.

The boys humored me and let me play pirates, read with them, and even play a little Farkle. It was such fun to be able to spend time with good friends. We’re looking forward to the next time!

Tuesday night we headed into Anchorage, saw Stranger Than Fiction, and then headed to the airport to pick Katie up. She was in good spirits for having just gotten off the plane from Seattle. We gabbed a bit before falling asleep sometime after midnight. The next morning we were on the road by 9:00 in order to get to Valdez mid-afternoon.

There was lots of yummy food for Thanksgiving. We gabbed through dinner and watched a few episodes of The Office to end the evening. The rest of the time in Valdez was pretty low-key. All the ladies worked on knitting purses… I still have to put a handle and a liner in mine. They’re pretty cute – a neat technique. Our time in Valdez was short. Bill’s looking forward to heading back there during the Christmas season in just a few weeks.

When we got back to Anchorage yesterday Katie, Bill, and I met up with Stacie, Josh, and the kids at the Glacier Brew House for a yummy dinner. It was fun to do something outside of Unalakleet with the Johnsons. After dinner Bill took Kate and I out to see Happy Feet. It wasn’t quite what I expected…

Prior to dropping Katie back off at the airport we stopped by Fred Meyers. Bill and I worked on finding the latest winter fashions… here’s what we came up with –

pretty much sexy.

The week was too fast, and quality time with family and friends always seems to go too quickly. Thanks to you all who made us feel so welcomed this week. We’re safe and sound in Unalakleet now for another week. It seems impossible that I’ll be heading to Minnesota so soon. Look out, folks…!

Hello again, everyone. Let me first say that I’ve missed you all. You’re probably wondering what’s been so exciting in my life that I’ve neglected my blog for nearly 2 weeks. Well… the answer is nothing. My life has been moving along nicely, but there just hasn’t been enough to write about. Or perhaps I’ve just not been in the right mood to write about nothing… until now! 🙂

So here’s some exciting, not-nothing, news! We talked to Mike and Amanda Svir and learned that they’re expecting a new little baby around April. Congratulations Svirs! We are so excited for you… though we’re a bit concerned there’ll no longer be room for Bill and I to move in to your house and let you support us. 😉

Bill has been busy with work… which is not a surprise. He loves his job, so I guess it doesn’t feel like work to him. He put a lot of work into the new BSSD website and has been making minor adjustments on it since it went public at the start of the week. This week brings the annual District Wrestling and Cheerleading meet here in Unalakleet. This is the 3rd year that Bill has worked to broadcast the tournament out to the other 14 sites in the district. He and his team of student broadcasters are busy trying to capture every moment of the tournament.

Meanwhile, I’ve been spending a lot of my time trying to find things that are “normal”. It’s been 9 1/2 weeks since I’ve been out of the “village” lifestyle. I never really considered myself a “shopper” (that’s been April’s arena), but lately I can’t wait to get to a mall… Target and Starbucks actually. So, Stacie and I decided to have a lunch outting here in town. There is exactly one restaraunt in Unalakleet, and I’d never been there. (We order pizza occasionally, but I didn’t really realize you could eat-in.) It was quite an experience. The food was good, and just going out to lunch did a lot for my mood! Here are a couple of pictures.

This weekend (tomorrow, actually) I am having Abbie and Cate (Stacie and Deb’s girls) over for a sleep over. Since the completion of the climbing wall, I have promised such a night, and we decided this would be a good weekend. I’m not sure what all will be on our agenda, but it’s going to be fun to have some little girls around. Saturday morning we’re having folks over for breakfast. I’m looking forward to it.

I hope you’re all well. Happy November!!!!!

The much anticipated week of inservice has come and gone. I am patting myself on the back for making the decision not to present this year… the week was jam packed! Our house was full each evening with folks staying from Brevig Mission, Wales, Golovin, and Diomede. During the days I escaped to invade Stacie’s house, drink her coffee, and chat with her and Tiff. We even spent some time stamping, though I didn’t get a whole lot accomplished. 🙂

Today I woke up in the best mood I’ve been in since, well, a while. Ironically, the sky is gray, and there are big flakes of snow fighting through the wind. There are chunks of ice floating towards the shore, and it’s just incredibly beautiful. Bill took the day off, and we’re just enjoying what appears to be the start of winter.

I resisted the urge to play Christmas music… until 3 minutes ago. 😉 I promise to just listen to Bing belt out “I’ll be Home…” and then I’ll turn it off. October is too early for this, but it just feels right!

Bill sent me to the store this morning (because I was going to the post office anyway) to buy a tarp. While I was there I noticed the produce section was looking pretty good, so I picked up 3 bananas and a bag of Gala apples. Never before moving up here did fruit feel like such a treat, nor did hauling it home feel like such an event. 🙂

As you can see, today is going to be a simple day. I hope you’re able to find happiness in simplicty today, too!

Hey, I forgot to tell you that Bill has also updated his blog. Go check it out, as he has different pictures and writing on his!

Welcome to your virtual tour of the nicest place I’ve paid rent on yet. (Though our place in Mitchell was pretty sweet, right Ape?) 🙂

Anyway, in my efforts to share my rural Alaska experience with those of you who won’t make it up here, I’m posting more pictures. Can you believe I’m already posting again? (Many of you probably missed my last post… so read down!)

Our official home starts after you pass the arctic entry / climbing room. You first walk into the dinning area which connects on to the living room. Here’s the view that hits you when you walk in. The second picture shows the opposite view.

 

Directly right of the doorway is our kitchen. I absolutely love our counter space and lots of big cupboards!

We didn’t get a good picture of the bathroom, so imagine a shower/tub, sink/vanity, toilet, and stackable washer/dryer.

Beyond the bathroom are the two bedrooms. Our guest room has a nice closet which I’ve filled up with all of our STUFF. Besides that it’s got sweet bunk beds. The bottom is a double bed and the top a single. I like ’em!

Finally, here’s our bedroom. You’ll agree that the best part of it is the view of the beach (though the pictures don’t show it… the ocean is about 20 yards away). Our bedroom also has a nice closet for the insane amout of clothes we’ve aquired, and our dressers… They’re full of clothes too, but my favorite part of them is the pictures on top. 🙂

   

Thanks for taking the tour!

What a week! It went quickly and felt very full… though I don’t know how interesting I was! I’ll write and you can decide for yourselves!

Stacie and I have been working on creating some gifts. Unfortunately, the god of creativity did not bless me this week and I didn’t really accomplish much project-wise. This will be the week, though… I feel it! (Plus, our friend Tiff is going to be up and we’re going to craft away!)

Our friend Nathan, from Diomede, was here at the beginning of the week. It was very nice for Bill to have someone around that shares his enthusiasm for technology. (Don’t get me wrong… I’m at a certain level of geekhood myself, but those of you who know Bill…!) Anyway, the two of them played from Sunday to Wednesday and then Nathan headed home.

During the days I invaded the “Basement Johnson’s” and chatted away. I was especially excited to go and share about my Dentist experience… surprisingly normal! (I’m sometimes reluctant to use “bush” services.) Anyway, I give Dr. Ladd (I think) a great review… of course, that might change after this Wednesday when I go to get my cavity drilled and filled and an old filling replaced. YUK! Besides captivating Stacie with my tales of dentistry (yeah right), we spent some time shopping this week. Yep… our version of hitting the malll included making a wish list  from our stampin’ up catalogs and visiting JoAnn.com. It really was nice to sip coffee and have a shopping buddy.

Yesterday was full! I headed down to Carrie’s to knit for a while; Bill stayed here and continued work on the wall. When I returned he was ready to start sawing some ply wood down to the right width. Look at him go!

I came back in time to help hold wood, place screws, and move walls! Bill certainly did more of the physical labor on this project, but he admitted my nagging was at the very least a motivator to get it done! 🙂

Plus… as you can tell, he was excited to climb. He started before the wall got done! 

I really did help, but I learned just how not-strong I am! Oh well… here I am placing a hold.

 We’ve got 60 on the wall right now and more in the mail. There are plenty to set a couple of routes on as is, but a few more will make it even more fun! Take a look at the finished product! Yea!

It’s been a nice week… and fast!

I subbed for Jr./Sr. High Math here in Unalakleet Monday – Wednesday this week. My friend Carrie is the teacher, and she was in town at meetings. Things were so well planned, and her classes ran very smoothly. It was a good few days. Unfortunately, I came down with a cold/flu bug, and it wiped me out pretty well. I spent yesterday evening and this morning working catching up on rest.

Last night Bill and I watched Hackers, which happens to be the movie we watched on our first date. How time has flown! Anyway, it was funny to look at how technology has changed in the past 11 years. (And living with the tech nerd that I do… I notice these things!)

Late this morning Stacie and I took advantage of the sunshine and took a walk around town. The air is a bit chilly, but the wind was not bad. James slept easily in his stroller while his mom and I gabbed. We both got orders from JoAnn.com in today, so tomorrow will be a crafting morning.

Tonight Bill and I took a drive up the road and out of town. I’d been thinking a lot about how most of my family and friends will never actually see where we live. So – here are some pictures of a beautiful night in Unalakleet.

Here’s a look back down on the big town!

 

We got our first snow last Friday, but the mountains have been topped for almost two weeks.   This one’s my favorite. It was just too pretty!

Life has been pretty low-key. We’re planning to work on the climbing wall a bit more this weekend with big hopes of finishing it up by Sunday night. October inservice is only a week and a half away, and we want to invite folks to come play at our house. 🙂

I’m missing out on a weekend at home with the girls. Both have been busy working. As I understand it, the weather here is better than there. That doesn’t happen too often. I hope everyone’s heating up the hot cocoa and enjoying the Fall.

Finally, we’ve had this cute little puppy hanging around our house. It seems every year we come across an adorable little puppy to play with. (It’s much cheaper and less exhausting than actually having a dog of our own!) I’ve named him Panda due to his white belly and paws. (Apparently some boys down the road have also adopted him and named him Jimmy.) Here’s a picture of a typical day when Panda stops by.

So, Bill and I returned from our travels, and the two of us should be here together in Unalakleet for a while now. That’ll be something new!

We’re already busy on a project that will entertain us through the winter. Many of you probably read Bill’s post about building a home climbing/bouldering wall last year. Well, it’s finally becoming a reality. We decided to go ahead and ship the materials up last Spring – knowing full well that this will not be something we can take with us when we move. Time has been moving quickly, and we’ve both been busy, so the actual construction of the wall has been on hold… until yesterday!

The wall is going to be a 3 sided “cube”. The sides and back will all be eight feet wide and approximately 7 feet tall. The back wall is going to slant out, a bit, to create more of a challenge. It will connect to the roof which will also have holds. I don’t plan to ever make it to the roof, as then I would be parallel to the floor, 7 feet up. We’ll see.

So, I’ll try to keep some pictures up of the processess. We could probably finish the darn thing today, but we’re waiting on another order of T-nuts. (We just had no idea how much of everything you need for something like this.)

First we had to create a “table” to put the boards on, as we don’t really have the right stuff for building up here… so we improvise.

The next step was to drill about 50 holes in each of 8 pieces of ply wood.

Bill’s kind of a natural at this stuff. me -not so much!

Anyway, the room we’re building in is our arctic entry… a very common room in houses up North. It’s not heated, but if we keep the second door (that opens to the rest of our house) open, it stays pretty toasty in there.

In other news… Bill’s updated his blog with pictures from his trip to Diomede. (It’s the village that’s right by Russia.) He got stranded out there for a couple of extra days but definitely enjoyed his adventure. Go check it out. 🙂

As I probably mentioned, I finished up my work travel for the fall this week. That means my life will start to take on some sense of routine (I hope!). To begin, I will be subbing for my friend Carrie’s math classes this Monday – Wednesday. I’m looking forward to spending some time at the school here this year.

Stacie and I have kept busy with the card making and lots of craft planning. We’ve managed to get a couple of good walks in, a visit to a health fair, and plenty of coffee. Since she’s working on her master’s, she sometimes has to go and observe a classroom here at the Unalakleet school. On those days, I get to watch their little boy, James, for a half-hour or so. What fun!

Speaking of little ones, I can finally post a couple of pictures of the beautiful baby Jack Stepec!

April and Trish got to go down to Iowa last week to meet Jack and visit with his mom and dad. I’m always envious of those times… especially when they call me to get directions for a lunch outing at Panera. Hmmph! I honestly am glad, however, that they all got to get together. Sounds like a great time.

The update from back home sounds good. We had snow on Friday… it was 75 outside in Cook on Saturday. Someone might as well get some weather to enjoy!

Well, that’s enough for now, I imagine. If you made it this far… thanks!

Goodness the time is going quickly. I continue to wake up in different places, and I’ll admit some mornings I’m too groggy to tell the difference!

I had a fantastic weekend in Unalakleet with Bill and our friends! The much anticipated visit of Tiffany happened on Wednesday, and I was fortunate to get some quality time with her and the other ladies! Friday night I headed over to the Stampin’ Up party and found lots of good things to order. Saturday we all lounged around Stacie’s, drank up her coffee, munched on peanutbutter m&ms and chit chatted like old times. It was such a great way to spend a Saturday! That evening we all headed to Curriers for a fabulous get-together.

I’ll admit I had to spend Sunday catching up on work reports and really not doing anything exciting. We did make it down to the airport in time to say good-bye to Tiff and catch some fresh air on the walk back to our house.

Now I’m in Golovin. I headed here this morning, though my plane was an hour and a half late. (That’s not extremely uncommon.) The great part about the late start was that I got a few minutes to stop by and chat w/ Stacie. It’s always nice to start your week off with friends.

The great part about work this week is that I get to catch up with some friends around the district. The facilitator here is my friend Terrence. He’s from Ely, and we actually met down in Dallas when we both were moving up to AK for the first time. Since then he’s become a good friend of mine and Bill’s, so it’s a bonus that we get to work together. Tomorrow I’m off to Shaktoolik and I get to work with a facilitator that I worked with last year. He and his wife are always so kind to me… so much that I’ll be staying with them while I’m in SKK. That’s been one really awesome thing about Alaska… people are very friendly and welcoming. It becomes easier to form friendships that I believe will last.

So, tomorrow (Tuesday) is Grandma Aune’s birthday. She’ll be 83, which is almost unbelievable to me. I guess I can’t figure out where all the years have gone since I was running in their front door off the school bus every night. Needless to say, I miss her, Grandpa, and my whole family. (One of the not-so awesome things about Alaska.)

It’s Katie’s 21st birthday today!!!! When we last talked she didn’t have any concrete plans for celebrating. I hope she had a great time doing whatever she decided to do!

I don’t think I mentioned the great news, which is the fact that April may very likely be hired back to her position in Babbit. (Enrollment is up at one of the sites, so they’re able to hire back still this year.) There’s always the hoops to jump through, but right now she’s in the classroom. It’s great that she can keep a foot in the door and still have some time to travel, etc. this year! I’m so happy for her.

Okay, I’m supposed to be sleeping.

What a week! I still can’t get my pictures to post… a weekend project, I guess.

I got in on a little Survivor game tonight in Stebbins. We each chose a player to follow through the season. The person whose player wins also wins a few bucks. I have some girl I didn’t even see on tonight’s show… so I’m not expecting big things. You never know though! This is the first I’ve watched of Survivor since I lived in South Dakota and April and I would go to Kyra’s for our weekly TV date. (I can’t get too wrapped up, as The Office is on at the same time… I plan to watch that.)

Yes, life is extremely exciting here in Northwestern Alaska. 😉 Actually, this week has been full. I will leave Stebbins tomorrow to spend the weekend in Unalakleet. I feel like we’ve accomplished a lot (work-wise) this week, so that’s always a good feeling.

I believe the Stebbins’ airport will be back open for service tomorrow, so I shouldn’t have a problem flying out. I don’t know if I mentioned before, but the runway lights were broken by some of the local children. These are expensive repairs to make, as all replacement parts have to be flown in. This is the second time this has happened recently. (Big Sigh!) I imagine this is a result of the ever-lasting “boredom” that kids in the village constantly talk about.

I’m still hoping to work on the climbing wall this week, but it will be up to Bill to hunt down the tools to accomplish that. The longer we wait to build, the more money signs I see flying out the door. 🙁 I’m really hoping that it will be done before the October District Conference when we will be having guests.

Reading through this just makes me realize how very tired I am! Time to sleep.

Love to you all!